In the aftermath of two separate incidents that ended in deaths, a veteran Iowa dispatcher has resigned after an officer shooting, and a Massachusetts dispatcher may have been fired for mishandling a 911 call. Boone County (Iowa) dispatcher Jeanie Driscoll had been with the agency 16 years when she fielded a 911 call last month about a knife-wielding man in a grocery store. She asked the caller, “Is there was any way you can get to him” to obtain a description. The man was later confronted by police and fatally shot when he didn’t drop the knife. The logging tape of Driscoll’s question sparked criticism from the local press, who questioned the wisdom of asking a 911 caller to move closer to an armed suspect. The incident also revealed that Driscoll had been never taken the state-required 40-hour dispatcher academy, but had been grandfathered in in 1998, four years after she was hired. Chief Deputy Gregg Elsberry said her experience will be missed, but declined to say if she was asked to resign or left on her own. In the second incident, the fate of Barnstable County (Mass.) dispatcher Rhonda Colburn is unknown after she failed to provide EMD instructions to the fiancé of a woman who choked on a marshmallow while intoxicated. Sheriff James Cummings has refused to confirm Colburn’s participation, if she was disciplined or even if she still works at the agency. During the 12-minute 911 call, there were several periods of at least two minutes when the dispatcher said nothing while the fiancé asked for help. A missing street sign may have contributed to a delayed response to the patient’s home, and when EMS units arrived, they could not revive the patient. The fiancé is now urging the district attorney to criminally charge the dispatcher. Update: As of Nov. 19th, Sheriff Cummings continues to refuse media requests for information about Colburn and any disciplinary action against her.
2 comments… add one
I’m reading about the call where a suspect description was obtained, and later armed suspect was shot by police. Are we missing some other apsects of the call or circumstances here about the dispatcher or police response? It doesn’t seem to be a whole story.
I’ve edited the story slightly to better emphasize that it was the local press questioning the wisdom of the dispatcher asking the 911 caller to obtain a better description of the suspect, inferring that the caller should move to a location closer to the suspect, thereby putting the caller in jeopardy from the suspect. County officials have said the dispatcher believed the caller was on in a second level office, looking out at the store floor through a window, and that the caller could safely move to another window to obtain a better view of the suspect. The key element here is that public pressure and criticism created pressure on the county and the dispatcher, which led to her resignation.
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